Ukraine is second in Central and Eastern Europe by number of AI companies

These are the findings of the study "AI ecosystem of Ukraine: talents, companies, education" by the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ukrinform reports.

According to the published data, artificial intelligence (AI) specialists account for less than 1% of the total number of IT professionals in Ukraine (307 thousand), but over the past 10 years, the number of AI/ML specialists has increased fivefold and as of January 2024, there were 5,200 of them.

According to the researchers, active migration of specialists abroad as a result of the war leads to a shortage of qualified personnel in the domestic market, hindering the development of the industry.

The most common professions among specialists are Data Scientists and ML Engineers, which together account for 63% of all specialists in the industry.

As of the end of 2023, there were 243 AI companies operating in Ukraine. This is the second highest number among Central and Eastern European countries after Poland (301 companies). Over the past four years, 34 new AI companies have appeared in Ukraine.

According to the study, 76% of 243 AI companies were founded in Ukraine and/or by Ukrainians abroad.

55% of Ukrainian AI companies' offices are located in Kyiv, where the largest pool of talents is concentrated (47.5%).

As reported earlier, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Kyiv School of Economics, and ETH Zurich are opening 20 grant places for master's students in the Micro- and Nanoelectronics programme.

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